Critical Notes

New Reviews and More From NBCC Members

By Jennie Hann

Member Reviews/Essays

NBCC board member Mandana Chaffa reviewed The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras for the Ploughshares blog.

Former NBCC board member Mark Athitakis reviewed Teddy Wayne’s new novel, The Great Man Theory, for the LA Times.

Jason Berry reviewed The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler by David I. Kertzer for the National Catholic Reporter.

Charles Green reviewed Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Behind “A Raisin in the Sun” by Charles J. Shields for The Gay & Lesbian Review.

Heller McAlpin was among the critics who loved Alice Elliott Dark’s new novel, Fellowship Point, which she reviewed for The Christian Science Monitor.

Carol Iaciofano Aucoin reviewed Andrea J. Buchanan’s debut novel, Five-Part Invention, for WBUR’s Arts & Culture.

Michael Bobelian reviewed The Times They Were a-Changin’: 1964, the Year the Sixties Arrived and the Battle Lines of Today Were Drawn by Robert S. McElvaine for The Washington Post.

Audra J. Wolf reviewed Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters by Serhii Plokhy for The New Republic.

Kathleen Rooney reviewed Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation by Nuar Alsadir for Liber. She also reviewed the short story collection Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murada for the same outlet.

Nichole LeFebvre reviewed Linea Negra: An Essay on Pregnancy and Earthquakes by Jazmina Barrera for the Los Angeles Review of Books. She also wrote a graphic essay on falling and grief for Catapult.

William O’Rourke’s essay-review of the Philip Roth and Blake Bailey imbroglio, entitled “The Roth & Bailey Show,” appeared in the winter/spring issue of the Notre Dame Review.

Linda Hitchcock reviewed David Bell’s The Finalists for Book Trib.

Jennifer Baumgardner profiled Nona Willis Aronowitz for Liber.

Lee Rossi reviewed In Which I Forgive the River by the poet Charlotte Muse for Pedestal Literary Journal.

Judith Reveal reviewed Jeffrey Fleishman’s Good Night, Forever; Iris Johansen’s A Face to Die For; and Ashley Weaver’s The Key to Deceit, all for the New York Journal of Books.

Patrician Schultheis reviewed Horse by Geraldine Brooks for the Washington Independent Review of Books.

Charice Caputo reviewed the essay collection Death by Landscape by Elvia Wilk for Liber.

Erika Dreifus covered multiple picture books in an article on new Jewish kidlit for Moment magazine.

Rafael Castillo wrote about the poetry of Arturo Mantecon for the San Antonio Express-News.

Diane Josefowicz reviewed Lurkers, a new novel by Sandi Tan, for Suspect.

Julie Phillips reviewed Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It by Kaitlyn Tiffany for Liber.

Member Interviews

NBCC board member Lori Feathers and her co-host Sam Jordison spoke to Nina Stibbe about her new book, One Day I Shall Astonish the World, a comedic novel with an everyday hero, for their “Across the Pond” podcast.

Shelley Frisch was interviewed about her latest translation project, The Aphorisms of Franz Kafka, published by Princeton University Press, The Forward.

Wayne Catan interviewed Jerry Stahl about his new book, Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Man’s Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust, for Vol. 1 Brooklyn.

Member News

Rebecca Donner, whose life of her great-great aunt Mildred Harnack, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, won the NBCC Award in Biography earlier this year, has just been awarded the 2022 Chautauqua Prize as well. Congratulations, Rebecca!!

“German and French” photo by NBCC member Kai Maristed. Used with permission.

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